Reading Assignment: Matthew 11:1-15
Main Idea: John the Baptist was the greatest prophet and people should have listened to him.
Truth: Have ears to hear (or hear truly the word of God).
Key Verse: Matthew 11:15
Four parts to the story of John the Baptist:
1. Teaching (1): Jesus continued to do His ministry even after sending out His twelve apostles.
2. Doubt (2-3): John had some doubts about Jesus’ identity as the Messiah. So he asked Jesus.
3. Answer/Word of God (4-6): Jesus answers John’s doubts with Scripture. He fulfilled Scripture.
4. Greatest Prophet (7-15): John was a man of character, self-discipline, and God’s choosing. His audience reacted violently, some will even execute him (Herod Antipas). But John is the forerunner for the Messiah, like God said in the OT. So people must listen to him carefully and respond with faith and repentance.
Prayer Suggestions:
1. Jesus. I will bring my doubts to You without challenge or rebellion or complaint, but with humility and a teachable heart. Thank You that You welcome questions like these to strengthen Your disciples and boost our confidence in Your word.
2. I want to become a person who hears truly. Help me to always hear Your word with faith and a real response of obedience to what You have spoken, so that I do not become a mere hearer, but an effectual doer of Your word.
Transcript
Let's pray and we'll begin our time.
Our Lord, thank You that every morning we can approach You. What a joy this is. Thank You that Your love toward us never changes, and that we can meet with You day by day. We pray that this morning, as we look to Your word that You will speak to our hearts and that You would mold and shape us more and more into the kind of people whose lives bring You glory and honor. Thank You for Jesus, who not only came to die in our place to pay for our sins, but is full of Your wisdom and thus can speak the greatest wisdom that we need for life. We pray that by Your Spirit You would teach us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The next reading assignment is Matthew 11:1-15, and the main idea here is about John the Baptist, how he was the greatest of all the prophets and that people should have listened to him. The truth I want to point out here is that we should have ears to hear. More simply, have ears to hear. To put it another way, truly hear the word of God. The key verse is found in verse 15, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Jesus often spoke these words as an invitation for people to hear the word of God truly.
The story of this chapter comes in four parts. The first part is teaching. After Jesus sends out the 12 disciples, after He has recruited them to join in His ministry, Jesus continued to teach. This might seem like a minor detail, but it's actually very revealing about Jesus’ own heart. If you recall, at the end of Chapter 9, we are told that Jesus had a great compassion for the lost whom are called lost sheep. Well, after Jesus sends the twelve apostles to join in His works of healing and preaching, Jesus continued to do the work. Jesus didn't send the apostles so that He can retire. He didn’t employ them so He can take a break. Why not? Because He really loved these people, and so He continued right along teaching and healing. That's verse one.
Then comes the next part which is doubt. Verses 2 to 3 is where we find John the Baptist having a little bit of doubt in his heart about Jesus’ Messianic identity. John the Baptist at this juncture had been arrested by Herod Antipas, the governor of Galilee, and imprisoned. This is different Herod than the one who killed all the babies around Bethlehem back in Chapter 2. This is one of his sons. His name is given in the New Testament as Herod Antipas. In any case, Matthew tells us the story about John’s arrest and imprisonment later in Chapter 14. Well, what happened? Simply put, Herod was upset that John was calling him to repent from a particular sin, and so he had him arrested and then locked him up in prison. So in prison John started to think about all the miracles that Jesus was performing. Now, in a sense he should have just believed that Jesus was the Messiah based on those signs, but he had some doubts. Why? He knew from the Old Testament that when the Messiah came, political oppression would also come to an end for God's people. But of course, he was still locked up in prison. And so he had some misgivings about whether Jesus was truly the Messiah. John didn't realize that the Messiah accomplishes His works in two separate comings. In the Old Testament, often the prophecies are blended together and you know this if you've kept up with Sunday sermons. We saw this in the Book of Daniel as well as in the Book of Isaiah recently. The Messiah comes first to make atonement for sin which requires His death and resurrection. In His second coming, He comes to establish His Kingdom on Earth, in which He puts an end to political oppression for His people, and this second coming requires His return with His redeemed people as an army from heaven. The Old Testament prophesied the Messianic works in two comings but John didn't realize this and so he had some doubts. Now, I find this to be most interesting. In this time of doubts, John does not ignore his doubts or is embarrassed by them. Instead, he did the best thing he could do, which is to ask the Lord. And so this is what John did. He asked Jesus through his disciples, “are you the Messiah?” His words were actually, “Are you the Expected One?” The Expected One was just another way of describing the Messiah. So he raises this question from a heart that was unsure and doubtful, but what we find is that Jesus took no offense at this. This is very comforting to us. You know when there are times when we have doubts in our hearts, we can bring them up to Jesus. Especially, if our attitude is right and we're not trying to challenge the word of God, but we sincerely wish to understand, the Lord welcomes our honest questions like these. I've done this many times over again in my life, and I’ve found that the Lord patiently deals with me and helps me to gain the understanding that I need. This is what we find in this passage. Jesus doesn't frown at John for his question. If we approach Jesus with humility, seeking to understand, not to challenge, not to rebel, but seeking to understand, the Lord welcomes us and helps us. And so there's a great encouragement for us here: we can always come to the Lord with our questions. If we seek Him with a sincere desire to understand, He will help us.
The next section is Jesus’ answer to John. This is verses 4 to 6. And Jesus’s answer to John is simply the word of God. That’s a good title for this next section: the Word of God. Jesus answered John’s doubts with the word of God. Jesus tells him, “Look at all the works that I'm doing and look at My preaching.” But He says this by quoting Scripture to give John assurance that He really is the fulfillment of Scripture. As Jesus gives John a list of the miraculous works that He did, He starts with the one that the Old Testament explicitly said that the Messiah would do, to open the eyes of the blind. Then Jesus ends with the reference to the preaching work of the Messiah, specifically that the Messiah would preach the gospel to those who needed it the most, whom the Old Testament called the poor. Jesus simply tells John that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.
Final section is about John as the greatest prophet. This is the rest of the verses, from 7 to 15. At this juncture, John’s disciples had left. Jesus then speaks to the crowd who were present and tells them what a great prophet John the Baptist was. Jesus first points out John's great character, that John was a man who would never be shaken. No matter what happened, he would stand firm in his character. Second, John was a man of great self-discipline, not a man of self-indulgence. Jesus contrasts John from kings who indulged themselves. John, on the other hand, lived a life of suffering. Third, John was a man of God's choosing. He is the man that God sent to be the forerunner for the Messiah. He's the man who prepares the way for the Messiah.
Now, Jesus also comments that the people of His time reacted violently to John's message. The religious leaders who heard John's message rejected it. Even though God had sent him, they refused to listen to his message. As for the political leaders like Herod Antipas, he had John locked up in prison and he will eventually kill John the Baptist and have him beheaded.
Jesus then again confirmed that John is the man of God’s choosing. He is “the Elijah who is to come.” The Old Testament prophet Malachi said that before the Messiah comes, there will be someone who comes like Elijah the Prophet. And Jesus confirmed that this was John. Then finally, Jesus gets to the bottom line. People must listen to the word of God. He says the words of verse 15, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Those words meant that not everyone who hears the word of God actually hears it as they should. Some people hear the words but they don't really understand, or for that matter, they don't even try to understand the message. An example of this is John's own disciples. Some of them didn't really understand John. Even though they heard the right words, they didn't really understand the message of God. Then, there are some who understand the message and they find it interesting and even find some satisfaction in the fascinating biblical ideas, but they do not apply the message to themselves. In the Gospel of Mark, we read that even after Herod locked up John, he actually would visit with John to hear what he said, because in some strange way he actually enjoyed listening to him, though he found it offensive. Strange, but true. Then finally, there are those who hear the message and understand it and they take offense at it. They don't want to be told that they are sinners who need to change. Religious leaders of John's day were just like this. None of these had ears to hear.
You see, lots of people hear the word of God, but not everyone hears the word of God truly. They have physical ears and the sounds of words enter their ears, but their hearts do not receive the words. Jesus always called people to receive the words with their hearts, ready to believe and ready to act upon that faith. It was no different with the message of God that came through the mouth of this great prophet, John the Baptist. People should absolutely heed the word of God and respond with faith. And so that's the final truth for this section. In the words of Jesus, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” If you really have open ears, then you should really listen to this message. That's the import of Jesus's words.
There are a number of things we can pray about from this section. First, if there are doubts in your heart, you can absolutely bring them to Jesus. As I said earlier, I've done this many times over again. There are things I didn't understand in the Bible. There are things that I had a hard time accepting, and I would pray and ask Jesus to help me and to give me understanding and perspective. And He has never failed to do that. And so I would encourage you to call upon Jesus with your doubts. Say something like this: “Jesus. I come to You with all my doubts, with all of my lack of understanding, with all my ignorance, and with all my wrong perspectives. I come to you with them because I really want to know the truth. And I wish to be corrected, because I want to believe what is right. Please help me and give me understanding. I thank You that You welcome questions like these, questions that come from a desire to understand. Thank You that even as You helped John, You desire to give me greater confidence in Your word. And so, Lord, this is my commitment to bring to You all my questions without challenge, without rebellion, without complaint, but with a humble heart that really seeks to know the truth.”
Second thing to pray about is to express your desire to hear the word of God truly. And so that prayer can go something like this. “Jesus. I thank You that Your words are with me this day, and even as I read these words, help me that I would not only hear with my ears, but with my heart. I don't want to be like the hard hearted people that I read about in the Bible. I want to be a good disciple that learns from You truly. Help me to see how I can apply Your word and take action that I would be an effectual doer of Your word and not a mere hearer. I ask You for help for this because on my own I can very much become a person who only hears the words and does nothing about them. Help me to receive Your words with all my heart. I depend on You for Your help.”
So that's the lesson for today. I hope that provides the introduction needed to understand and apply the next section from Matthew. God willing, we'll meet again on Friday and we'll cover the remainder of Chapter 11. Lord bless you and we are done for today.